Kent Island Osprey Webcam – Chesapeake Conservancy Nest

The Kent Island Osprey Webcam looks across open water to an osprey nest on a platform at the top of a tall pole standing in the water off Kent Island, Maryland, the largest island in Chesapeake Bay. A family on the island hosts the camera with Chesapeake Conservancy, and explore.org streams it. Each spring a pair the Conservancy calls Tom and Audrey comes back to this nest to lay eggs and raise chicks. When this page was written in November 2026 the birds had gone south, and the stream showed a wide view from the family’s dock: gray water rippled by the wind, the stick nest on its pole in the middle of the frame, a wooded shore lined with houses across the water, and a row of private piers at the right edge.

About the Kent Island Osprey Nest

The Conservancy calls the hosts the Crazy Osprey Family. They put up their first camera nearly 20 years ago for their daughter’s school, began working with Chesapeake Conservancy in 2013, the year viewers around the world started following the nest, and in 2018 explore.org joined in and installed a newer camera. The home is private, and the Conservancy gives no address beyond Kent Island.

The names Tom and Audrey pass from bird to bird. A new male that arrived on March 27, 2023 courted the resident female and was named Tom, and the pair raised one chick, Molly, which fledged. In 2024 a visiting crow took Audrey’s first egg and the later eggs failed. In 2025 two females, nicknamed Fair Lady and Shady Lady, visited the nest, and Fair Lady became the new Audrey. Her three eggs hatched in June, one chick died in late July, and the two surviving females were named Luna and Hope. In 2026 a pair landed on the morning of March 21 and was confirmed as Tom and Audrey on April 2. Three chicks hatched in early June, and two of them died in the heat over the Fourth of July weekend.

Kent Island covers 81.9 square kilometers (31.62 square miles) of land in Queen Anne’s County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, with about 20,110 residents in 2023.William Claiborne founded a settlement here in August 1631, the oldest English settlement in present-day Maryland. About 6 kilometers (4 miles) of bay separate the island from Sandy Point on the western shore, a gap spanned by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge since 1952, with a second span added in 1973. The bay around it has supported the largest concentration of breeding ospreys in the world, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 pairs according to the Chesapeake Bay Program, nesting on dead trees, utility poles, channel markers and platforms like this one.

Weather and Climate on Kent Island

Surrounded by water, Kent Island has hot summers and cool, damp winters. Ten years of daily records from 2015 to 2024 put July highs at about 29°C (85°F) with nights near 24°C (75°F), close to the NOAA averages for Annapolis across the bay. That heat shows on camera: the Conservancy reported that high temperatures killed two of the three chicks in July 2026. Rain falls in every month, from about 85 millimeters (3.4 inches) in November to about 155 millimeters (6.1 inches) in July.

Spring warms quickly, with April highs around 16°C (62°F) as the ospreys settle in. Autumn stays mild into October at about 19°C (67°F) by day, and in early November the trees on the far shore had turned brown and orange. Winter is cool rather than harsh, with January highs of about 6°C (42°F) and nights close to freezing. On windy days the open water in front of the nest turns choppy. While the ospreys are away, tundra swans from the Arctic coast of Alaska and Canada spend the winter on Chesapeake Bay, a journey traced on our bird migration map.

Things to Do Near Kent Island

The Cross Island Trail, completed in 2001, runs across the island for walkers and cyclists from Terrapin Nature Park in Stevensville to the Chesapeake Exploration Center at Kent Narrows. Terrapin Nature Park has a beach on the bay and trails through meadows and wetlands. The Exploration Center houses the Queen Anne’s County tourism office and displays about the Chesapeake, and its three-story outdoor observation platform looks over Kent Narrows, the channel that separates the island from the mainland.

The Stevensville Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and includes Christ Episcopal Church, the Cray House and the Stevensville Train Depot. Matapeake Beach and Romancoke Pier give public access to the water elsewhere on the island. At the northern tip, Love Point marks the spot where the Chester River empties into Chesapeake Bay.

Similar Webcams You Might Like

More nests and Chesapeake country to watch next:

• Barnegat Light Osprey Webcam
• Easton Maryland Webcam
• Baltimore Shipping Channel Webcam

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Chesapeake Conservancy osprey nest?

The nest stands in the water beside a private home on Kent Island, in Queen Anne’s County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The island sits in Chesapeake Bay across from Sandy Point and is linked to the western shore by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Conservancy does not publish the exact address.

What can you see on the Kent Island Osprey Webcam?

From March to late summer the stream follows the osprey pair at the nest, from courtship and eggs to chicks being raised. In November 2026 it showed the dock camera’s wide view of the empty nest on its pole, with houses and piers on the shore beyond.

Why is the Kent Island Osprey Webcam nest empty?

The ospreys migrate. The Chesapeake Bay Program says Chesapeake ospreys begin heading south in mid-August and return in early March, and the Conservancy says they winter in South and Central America.

When do the ospreys return to Kent Island?

Usually in the second half of March. The Conservancy logged arrivals on March 17 in 2023, March 23 in 2024, March 31 in 2025 and March 21 in 2026. Incubation takes about a month, and chicks hatched in June in both 2025 and 2026.

Who are Tom and Audrey on the Chesapeake Conservancy osprey cam?

Tom and Audrey are the names the Conservancy gives the pair that nests here, and the names stay with the nest as the birds change. The current Tom arrived as a new male in 2023, and the current Audrey, first known as Fair Lady, took over in 2025.

Why does the camera show the nest from so far away?

A lightning strike damaged the wiring of the close-up camera on the nest platform, and the Conservancy said it would be repaired after the ospreys had left. While it is out, the stream relies on the swan cam on the family’s dock, and explore.org’s operators frame the nest as well as they can from there.

What is the weather like on Kent Island?

Summers are hot, with July highs near 29°C (85°F), and winters are cool, with January highs around 6°C (42°F) and nights close to freezing. Rain is spread through the year, with the most in July.

Source: Chesapeake Conservancy